Simon Holding & Anor v The Commissioners for HMRC
[2024] UKFTT 337 (TC)
Mark White & Anor v The Commissioners for HMRC
29 September 2023
[2023] UKFTT 866 (TC)
First-tier Tribunal
People bought a big house with fields. They tried to get back some taxes, saying the fields weren't part of the house. The judge said the fields were part of the house, so they didn't get their money back. It was all about whether the fields were used for something separate from the house at the time they were bought, and they weren't.
Key Facts
- •Appellants jointly purchased Horton Hall in Staffordshire on 23 August 2013 for £1,300,000.
- •The purchase comprised five Land Registry titles and included fields surrounding the main buildings.
- •Appellants claimed a £13,000 SDLT refund, arguing the property was mixed residential and non-residential.
- •HMRC refused the refund, claiming the property was entirely residential.
- •The dispute centers on the nature of the surrounding fields and whether they formed part of the 'grounds' of the residential property under s116 Finance Act 2003.
Legal Principles
Definition of "residential property" and "non-residential property" under s116 Finance Act 2003.
s116 Finance Act 2003
In determining whether land forms part of the grounds of a building, a wide range of factors are considered, with no single factor being determinative. The land must be functionally an appendage to the dwelling, not have a self-standing function.
Hyman [2021] UKUT 68 (TCC) and Myles-Till [2020] UKFTT 127 (TC)
Land does not cease to be residential property merely because the occupier could do without it; there is no requirement that land be necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of the buildings, nor a statutory size limit.
Hyman [2022] EWCA Civ 185
The existence of public footpaths does not render property non-residential.
Hyman [2019] UKFTT 469 (TC) and Averdieck [2022] UKFTT 384 (TC)
Outcomes
Appeal dismissed.
The Tribunal found that at the effective date of the transaction, the fields were functionally occupied with and were appendages to Horton Hall. They lacked a self-standing function, and any subsequent informal arrangements with farmers were not relevant to the SDLT assessment.